Dear colleagues! Here I have another interesting article: As population is getting older, more and more
workforce will be aged 60+. Amongst others, the article below deals with the
question if the younger generation of workers sees this as a
direct threat on their career progression. What do you think, isn’t it an important
and integral part to learn from or share knowledge with experienced staff?
Also the nature of the workforce is changing over time. Besides new trends in technology, can you think of any other tensions which may arise between the so-called ageing workforce and Generation Y?
I am looking forward to your comments!
http://uk.hrmanager.com/
Also the nature of the workforce is changing over time. Besides new trends in technology, can you think of any other tensions which may arise between the so-called ageing workforce and Generation Y?
I am looking forward to your comments!
http://uk.hrmanager.com/
Matthias, thanks for posting this article.
AntwortenLöschenthis is a highly controversial topic as it plays an important role in nowadays lifes and many pros and cons exist regarding this topic. On the one hand it is true that it is an important and integral part to learn from experienced staff as they have precious knowledge that they collected over the years. But I do not see any threat in this because it represents, in my opinion, an advantage for someone to have an experienced colleage who "teaches" you how to do it and who you can ask anytime you need help.
The main problem is that many managers refuse to let older employees who are already a long time in the company, work for them as they get to expensive for them.
I also want to say that not only Generation Y can learn from the ageing workforce, vice versa it is the same!!
Well, we have an ageing society (that's nothing new), so we also have an ageing workforce. I don't really feel threatened by that to be honest. There have always been older workers who are less technologically proficient than the younger employees. Changes might come about a little slower because of that, but they don't stop. Moreover when new technological innovations come to the market that really can make a difference concerning efficiency, cost effectiveness(...) there won't really be a choice. Change and get used to it, or your competitors will. Whether older employees like it or not, they also have to adapt.
AntwortenLöschenI agree with Marlene about the learning topic. I think an "age-balanced" workforce makes sense. This way you not only learn from each other, but you also get different viewpoints. But there's also another factor: the workforce should fit the company. Of course google's average employee will always be younger than Raiffeisen's average employee.
I agree with you, Sonja - as society is ageing, our workforce is, too. This is a fact and cannot be changed. However, no company can survive without being up to date on current developments in the technological sector. Therefor, even having a high percentage of older employees cannot mean that they don't know what a social network is, how to use a smartphone etc. I personally made the experience that people who are not "digital natives" like to learn about these new changes. I think that many of them appreciate if they are introduced to new technologies for example. Of course they won't learn as quickly as digital natives, but it is worth it to teach them.
AntwortenLöschenAnother point which I would like to stress is that older employees have one asset which is essential: Experience. Therefore a "balanced workforce" as mentioned earlier will be a great advantage to any company. By having the young people show the older ones how to use new devices and at the same time valuing their experience, both sides will learn. And in my opinion this will contribute to the overall progress of the organization.
To name an example from my internship: The CEO of my company scheduled "Reverse monitoring" with all interns where he basically asked us for our point of view on how he was leading the company - and also how he could use new devices like iPads even more to the advantage of the company. At the same time he was very open regarding his strategy and goals. This is one example how generations could learn from each other.
I do think that companies MUST retain and train their older work force in future. As Sonja mentioned it is not new that our population is ageing and there is not an enormous supply of the young work force. Companies, will and have to train their existing and older work force on how to deal with new technologies. And companies will profit from that. They possess of a highly experienced and at the same time technologically advanced work force. I am however not sure if this should be seen as a threat for the younger generation. Yes we do not have a lot of experience in the work life but we are experienced with the new technology and we could be the trainers of the older work force. Just as it was the case in Verenas company. In the end we could also profit from that - after some years working the generation Z will follow us in the work place and they will be the ones training us.
AntwortenLöschenFrom my opinion it is even funny how older generation and generation y having such a "conflict". From my own experience I can tell that everything very much depends on personality.
AntwortenLöschenLet's take our lectures as an example. All of us are coming there and learning, our professors are older then we are, they are sharing there experience with us and I cannot tell that we got something against that. Most of us are very interested in the topics we are discussing and respecting that professors offer us an opportunity to learn from them. So the same is going to happen in the company, we will be there and learn from older generation.
While older generation always can learn from us if they wish. For example my grandmother on monthly basis she asks me something about new technology and wishes to learn, at this point of time she knows how to operate with computer and recently she learnt all about i phone. But it happened only because she wanted that and I was wishing to help her.
So the whole "conflict" between older generation and generation y is based just on stubbornness, nothing else. If both parties wish to learn, they will put all prejudice away and start developing for the better.
In my opinion it depends on the sector.
AntwortenLöschenIn many jobs automation replaces some labour jobs and creates new jobs for more skilled labour. Most of this new jobs have to do with computers and modern technique, which often is more easy for the younger generations.
In other areas, like sales a older, more experienced colleague can really support and teach younger employees.
Employees from different generations have to learn to use the advantage of this difference in age, knowledge and experience. As it was said before, the generations can learn from one another. Generation Y has to be open for the advices that older employees can give them due to their experience and the older workforce has to accept that technology is changing fast today.
AntwortenLöschenAnd as long as companies realise the benefit from employees from different generations and create an environment for the exchange of knowledge and experience, there should be no threat for the Generation Y workers.